Chris Dial said the weeks leading up to his hiring could have been its own Netflix series.

“After being in Europe for a month, I just happened to be back in town when my cell phone went off about the job,” Dial said. “It could be a Netflix series if someone broke down the last week. It would be entertaining to watch.”

“It started with good conversations with people that we already had strong relationships with. I think we all new took it in and asked ourselves if it made sense.”

And it did. On July 31, Our Lady of the Lake named Dial the program’s next men’s basketball coach.

Dial knows talent both locally and abroad, which he plans to balance out his roster with at OLLU.

“Those interactions are priceless,” he said. “If we are able to put some international guys with the guys that are from here, those relationships that are going to serve those guys for the rest of their lives.”

Dial, who was born and raised in San Antonio and played at Texas Lutheran has become diverse in his knowledge of coaching. Dial has experience coaching locally in high schools like St. Gerard, McCollum, John Paul II and New Braunfels and overseas in places like Chisinau, Moldova and Macedonia.

Not to mention over 90 international camps.

“It is exciting for our athletic program to bring in someone with such a deep breadth of basketball experience on so many levels,” OLLU athletic director Shane Hurley said. “He is a true teacher of the game, and we feel he will bring a high-level and lasting success to the program.”

However, his most significant accomplishment was the founding of The Basketball Embassy (TBE) in 2014, a multinational and nonprofit organization that has built community through basketball.

Their annual camp has been hosted by OLLU for the past three years. In June, 115 kids across 12 countries aged 15-17 attended the week-long assembly.

“We hear about a kid from Floresville that spent his summer in the middle of Romania because he met a guy at this camp,” Dial said. “We want to build relationships like this at Our Lady of the Lake. It will give something for people to talk about, having a 12-man roster with four players from overseas, four across Texas and four from here in San Antonio.”

Dial said the camp has helped him build great relationships with players.

“Given a little time, we do,” Dial said when asked about whether the camp going forward will give him an advantage in recruiting. “It’ll give us edge to grab some quality players and evaluate talent. It already has.”

Texas State alum Dustin Karrer will serve as Dial’s assistant. Karrer has worked with Dial in TBE since the beginning and has experience in coaching since 2010 when he took over as the women’s coach at John Paul II.

“I’m excited to be here to get the opportunity to coach at the college level and coach in a town we have put a lot of investment into,” Karrer said. “We have a constant inbox of international players that are looking into playing in the U.S. and a lot that are really good.”

With two more assistant coaching vacancies to fill out, Dial will have to work quickly as the summer nears its end.

“There’s been guys that have reached out already and have expressed interest in this program, so we’re evaluating that as we speak,” Dial said when asked about potential assistants. “The great John Wooden used to always say, ‘Be quick but don’t hurry’, well were going to have to hurry a little bit.”

Dial is taking over a program with a 67.7 winning percentage since 2009 and 11 NAIA All-Americans. Last season, the Saints finished 23-12, falling in the quarterfinals of the NAIA tournament.

OLLU opens the 2018-19 campaign at Southern University in New Orleans on Nov. 5.

“There’s been success here and our goal is to continue that,” Dial said. “We will build players that embody what it means to be an OLLU student-athlete and what it means to be involved in the community in a positive way.”